The number of subscribers of mobile communications services has been growing explosively in the past decade. As the popularity of mobile devices expands, the underlying technology that enables mobile communications has also been evolving. Mobile devices evolved from analog transmissions associated with the first mobile phones to digital transmissions presently used by a large variety of mobile communications devices. The big boom in mobile communications can be traced back to the early 1980's when the prevailing technology was Analog Mobile Phone Service (“AMPS”), also known as first generation (“1G”). As time progressed, mobile communications technology took a leap from analog to digital cellar technology, with the emergence two competing technologies: Time Division Multiple Access (“TDMA”) and Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”). With digital transmissions, more communications can be accommodated in the same amount of radio frequency spectrum. As a result, digital technologies, such as TDMA and CDMA, lay the groundwork for services beyond simple voice telephone calls, and enable data services, e.g., Internet access, text messaging, picture sharing, and so forth to flourish.
The use of digital networks by mobile commmunications devices involves a wide variety of technologies. Data may be converted to a variety of different formats as it is transmitted to its ultimate destination. For example, the Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”) is presently a popular standard for mobile communications. GSM differs significantly from its predecessors in that both signalling and speech channels are digital, which means that it is seen as a second generation (“2G”) mobile device system. Data communication was built into the GSM standard from early on. GSM is an open standard which is currently developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”).
Packet data capabilities were added to the GSM standard in 1997 by means of General Packet Radio Service (“GPRS”). Higher speed data transmission have also been introduced with Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (“EDGE”) in the 1999 version of the standard. GPRS is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile devices. It is often described as “2.5G”, that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile communications. It provides moderate speed data transfer, by using unused TDMA channels in the GSM network.
GPRS is different from the older Circuit Switched Data (“CSD”) connection included in GSM standards releases before 1997. In the older system, a data connection established a circuit, and reserved the full bandwidth of that circuit during the lifetime of the connection. GPRS is packet-switched, which means that multiple users share the same transmission channel, only transmitting when they have data to send. Web browsing, receiving e-mails as they arrive, and instant messaging are examples of uses that require intermittent data transfers, which benefit from sharing the available bandwidth.
Regardless of the transmission protocols that are used by a particular mobile device, modern transmissions, whether voice, data, or otherwise, will likely travel across a digital network for at least some portion of their voyage to a final destination. Modem mobile communications systems allow data from mobile devices to be transmitted across digital networks such as the Internet. However, any data transmitted across a digital network must be properly packaged and formatted, and sent via digital equipment that is appropriately provisioned. The use of digital networks to transmit data generally involves placing the data, e.g., data originating from a mobile device, onto a digital network. The data is then sent across the digital network to its destination, and finally retrieved from the digital network for consumption by the recipient.
For example, consider a transmission made by a mobile phone. A signal is transmitted from the mobile phone to a receiving antenna. The data represented by the signal may be transmitted from the receiving antenna to a centralized location. The data may then be converted to a format that is optimized for transmission across digital networks. It is packaged so that the digital network will deliver it to the correct location. Assuming the various network elements such as routers, firewall systems, VPN tunnels, and so forth are correctly provisioned, the data then makes its way across the digital network to its destination. Finally, the data sent in the original transmission is reassembled in a useful format for consumption by a recipient.
Sending data across digital networks in this fashion requires a number of properly provisioned elements. When placed on a digital network, data is routed to an Access Point Name (“APN”), e.g. “UPS.com” corresponding to a specific destination, such as the servers controlled by the United Parcel Service (“UPS”). In order to successfully travel to its destination, Gateway GPRS Support Node (“GGSN”) tables, Fixed End System router tables, firewall systems, VPN tunnels, and any number of other elements as required by the particular digital network need to be properly provisioned.
Too often, one or more of the network elements may be improperly provisioned, especially when provisioning elements for a new customer for the first time. This may cause one or more failed transmissions, a lag in the time it takes to provision a network for communications, and high provisioning costs as personnel work to troubleshoot and resolve the transmission problem. Decentralized maintenance and updates to such network elements may cause additional delay in troubleshooting buggy or failed connections.
Moreover, wide access to the various network elements by personnel of a mobile communications company presents a security risk, in that access to elements may cause valuable data to be misappropriated. Mistaken, malicious or otherwise inappropriate disabling of elements, as well as misappropriation of sensitive information such as information on how to connect to a private company's servers, is a real security threat that should be taken seriously. Furthermore, it is difficult in present, decentralized network provisioning systems to gather and synthesize information from the various network elements, which is increasingly important for security purposes as well as regulatory compliance and automated troubleshooting technologies.
In light of the above described state of the mobile communications industry, a solution is needed that facilitates provisioning and maintenance of access point names and associated data for digital transmissions, and facilitates centralized information storage and access control.